Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Whoa, I Actually Painted Something (other than my bathroom)

It's been over six months since my last confession. In that time, I left my job of over 8 years at Little Caesars to become Creative Director for Olympia Entertainment/Red Wings, which has been a fun, wild and wooly ride...but hasn't left a lot of time to do personal work. So I'm extra super-duper excited to present the official gang sign for "The Bad Apples," rival gang to "The Rotten Bananas."

I did the Rotten Bananas sign for my kids' treehouse nearly two years ago. Shortly afterward, I had the idea for what their arch enemies would look like, and did a quick thumbnail, which has been floating around my studio since.

The impetus to paint it finally came when Phil Hilliker asked me to participate in "MiniGrand- A Giant Show of Tiny Proportions" at Lullubell Toy Bodega, opening this Saturday in Tucson. The theme of the show is small pieces (7" or smaller), and since the Rotten Bananas sign is one of the biggest paintings I've done at over 26," it was fun to try to give them a similar look and feel when they were done at such different sizes ("The Bad Apples" measured in at under five inches--no size jokes, please). The piece is acrylic and Prismacolor on the backing cardboard from a cheap, plastic frame (sorry Phil).

The show features great artists like Adam Rex (author and artist of great books like Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich), Brandon Garrison and Brian Stuhr. If you're in the Tucson area, I invite you to check it out.